"But I am not—quite mad, Rex!" she said.
He lifted his hands to hers and lightly held them. "It is no madder a project than the one you are at present engaged upon. What? You won't? You defy me to do my worst?"
"No, I don't defy you," she said.
He flashed a smile at her. "How wise! But listen! It's a bargain all the same. You put me on my honour. I put you on yours. Go your own way! Pursue this bubble you call love! And when it bursts and your heart is broken—you will come back to me to have it mended. That is the price I put upon my mercy. I ask no pledge. It shall be—a debt of honour. We count that higher than a pledge."
"Ah!" Juliet said, and suppressed a sudden tremor.
He stood up, gallantly raising her as he did so. "And now we will go and look for your friends," he said. "Is all well, ma chérie? You look pale."
She forced herself to smile. "You are a preposterous person, Charles
Rex," she said. "Yes, let us go!"
She turned with him towards the panelling, but she did not see by what trick he opened again the door by which they had entered. She only saw, with a wild leap of the heart, Dick Green, upright, virile, standing against the dark hangings of the passage beyond.